Google SEO +1

In summary it says any URL that a Google+ user or searcher says is worth a +1 click is captured by Google. I see why for public pages you want to appear in search results it’s a good thing but for URLs that have been added to a Robot.txt file this could potentially be a bad thing.

The robot.txt file is used to stop Google from indexing pages in their search engine. So when the Google robots visit your website to index pages they ignore everything the webmaster lists in the Robot.txt file. However since Google launched the +1 service the robots will include links to pages that have been “+1’d” regardless of whether they’re in the Robot.txt. They won’t index all the content but they will index the URL so that your URL will appear in search results.

While this isn’t particularly new (Google use all ways they can to find your links) the robot.txt file usually keeps you out of the search engine results pages (the SERPS). As the original post describes potentially this could be a bad thing as +1’d URL’s could get into the public SERP. This is a small chance but still the possibility exists that the flaw could be exploited and it means SEO folks will have to do more work than simply the robot.txt file to keep pages out of Google. Although many would argue that has always been the case! 😀

On the other hand the good news is that it appears that for public pages Google are attempting to help users define interesting content themselves. So it appears SEO has a new angle. If the pages are +1’d they are going to improve their ranks in organic search results.

Steve is a well known analytics specialist, author and speaker. A pioneer since 2002, he established one of the first European web analytics consultancies (Aboavista), later acquired by Satama (now Trainers’ House) in 2006. In 2008 he wrote his first book Cult Of Analytics published on May 14th 2009.
He currently serves as CEO at Quru and has presented and keynoted web analytics topics across Europe. These include The Internet Marketing Conference (Stockholm), The Search Engine strategies (Stockholm), IIH (Copenhagen), the IAB Finland (Helsinki), Media Plaza (Amsterdam), Design For Conversion (Amsterdam) The eMetrics Summit (London, Munich, Stockholm), Divia (Helsinki) in addition to sitting on dozens of panels.